My Favorite Wildlife Species

Written by Kaʻū Wildlife Scholarship Recipient #1: Lori-Lee Lorenzo

In May 2023, HWF offered ten scholarships to recent high school graduates with ties to Kaʻū (thanks to funding from a private foundation).  Part of the application process included an essay (400-500 words) featuring their favorite native wildlife species, plant or animal.  Find more info about the scholarship here.

Lori and her favorite wildlife species, the Hapuʻu Pulu.

This question was hard for me, as I love so many different native species, both plants and animals! However, after thinking really hard about it, I chose the Native Hapu‘u plant, specifically Hapu‘u Pulu (Cibotium glaucum). My entire life I spent a lot of time in and around the forest. Ever since I was a child I was always fascinated by the Hapu‘u Pulu’s golden brown soft fluffy hair. At the time I didn’t know the name of this interesting plant. I just remembered this specific plant because its golden hair would remind me of a Golden Retriever dog.

When I graduated from high school, I got accepted to be a paid KUPU/Americorps Intern for The Nature Conservancy: Ka‘ū & Kona Hema, for a year long term. I continued working with them for the next three years (two more terms). This internship really grew my knowledge and passion about how important it is to take care of our natural resources in Hawai‘i, for the health of native species and also for our watershed systems. When you have a healthy forest, you will have a healthy watershed system and reef system, because water runs from mauka to makai. I realized how many native species are already extinct and how many others are endangered, especially our native birds. My passion grew so much that I’m now working on getting my A.S. Degree in Tropical Ecosystem and Agroforestry Management at Hawaiʻi Community College. I have just completed my second year at HCC Manono Campus.

I found myself working in the forest everyday, taking in and studying all of the native species in The Nature Conservancy preserves. Some days the work was harder than others, working in the pouring rain, pulling weeds, fixing fences, and cleaning trails. On those tough days, I would look at the Hapu‘u in the forest, so peaceful, so quiet and so beautiful! This helped me remember how much I loved the work I got to do, no matter how tough the task was.

I learned that the Hapu‘u helps so many other species in forests. When they are standing up they provide understory shade for smaller plants to thrive, they help keep invasive species from moving into forests, they cut the rain droplets from hitting the ground too hard and causing ground erosion, and they are also a great support beam for native Maile to crawl on and keep safe off the ground, protecting them from invasive species such as pigs.

Even when the Hapu‘u gets blown down from wind, they still continue to help so many other species in the forest. They become nourishing logs for several native species to have a better chance of surviving. The seedlings grow off the Hapu‘u log which protects them from predators on the ground and also gives them more nutrients. This helps native trees and shrubs populate, which then means more food and habitat for native birds. It greatly amazes me how a species can be so helpful to everything around it, and never take anything from the other species, it only gives! The Hapu‘u is also a survivor, being one of the toughest native plants in the forest. It can grow at both low and high elevations.

However, its biggest predator is pigs. When drought season hits, pigs will aggressively push down the Hapu‘u and bite it open, drinking the water that is stored inside its log. This causes the Hapu‘u to dry out and die and it also makes it harder for other plant species to grow on it, because its log is damaged. The main way we can protect the Hapu‘u is by having fenced preserves and removing invasive species such as the pigs. This will help the Hapu‘u have a safe place to thrive and populate. This in turn will help keep our native forests healthy and happy!

My hope for the future is to earn my degree, and become a conservationist in Ka‘ū, where I was born and raised, so that I can continue to protect and take care of our precious ecosystems, and all of the amazing species that live there, including the Hapu‘u Pulu!

Join us in congratulating Lori in being our first Kaʻū Wildlife Scholarship Recipient and for your continued passion to protect native wildlife (and ecosystems) during your academic and career future!